Final month, as a part of Ron DeSantis’s dystopian campaign to dictate the subjects that may and can’t be mentioned in colleges and companies in his state, the Florida Division of Training despatched a letter to the School Board rejecting a brand new AP African American research course, claiming it’s “opposite to Florida regulation” and “considerably lacks instructional worth.” (The governor adopted the letter up with a press convention through which he declared: “We would like training, not indoctrination. If you happen to fall on the facet of indoctrination, we’re going to say no, if it’s training, then we’ll do…. We consider in educating youngsters info and learn how to assume, however we don’t consider they need to have an agenda imposed on them.”) Shortly thereafter, the School Board launched the official curriculum for the course, and…it positive appeared as if the governor of Florida had efficiently railroaded the group into eradicating the subjects he didn’t like, together with Black Lives Matter and works by Black students related to, amongst different issues, vital race idea. Clearly, that flip of occasions didn’t make the School Board look nice, nor did a February 7 letter from the FDOE through which the division tried to rebut the corporate’s claims that it hadn’t bowed to political stress, and successfully took credit score for the adjustments. And over the weekend, the board determined to do one thing about it.
In an announcement posted on the group’s web site over the weekend, through which it wrote “our dedication to AP African American Research is unwavering,” the School Board {accused} the DeSantis administration of spreading “misinformation” about how the course was crafted and the influence the FDOE had. Referencing the February 7 letter, the board wrote: “Whereas it has been claimed that the School Board was in frequent dialogue with Florida in regards to the content material of AP African American Research, it is a false and politically motivated cost.” It added: “In Florida’s effort to engineer a political win, they’ve claimed credit score for the precise adjustments we made to the official framework. Of their February 7, 2023, letter to us, which they leaked to the media inside hours of sending, Florida expresses gratitude for the elimination of 19 subjects, none of which they ever requested us to take away, and most of which stay within the official framework.”
The weekend assertion additionally referred to the FDOE’s declare that the School Board eliminated phrases like “systemic marginalization” and “intersectionality” from the curriculum at their behest, and famous: “This isn’t true. The notion that we wanted Florida to enlighten us that these phrases are politicized in a number of states is ridiculous. We took a tough have a look at these phrases as a result of they typically are misunderstood, misrepresented, and co-opted as political weapons. As an alternative we centered all through the framework on offering concrete examples of those necessary ideas. Florida is making an attempt to say a political victory by taking credit score retroactively for adjustments we ourselves made however that they by no means advised to us.”
Elsewhere, the School Board writes that its largest mistake was not calling out the DeSantis administration on its bullshit sooner. “We deeply remorse not instantly denouncing the Florida Division of Training’s slander, magnified by the DeSantis administration’s subsequent feedback, that African American Research ‘lacks instructional worth’,” it wrote. “Our failure to lift our voice betrayed Black students in every single place and people who have lengthy toiled to construct this outstanding area.” Neither DeSantis nor the FDOE seem to have commented on the School Board’s newest.
If you happen to’re questioning if DeSantis’s viewpoints about Black historical past are newly acquired, that doesn’t look like the case. In November, in a narrative about DeSantis’s time educating highschool historical past at a personal boarding faculty after graduating from Yale and earlier than attending Harvard Regulation College, a former pupil informed The New York Occasions that DeSantis appeared to justify slavery whereas educating in regards to the Civil Battle. “Like in historical past class, he was making an attempt to play satan’s advocate that the South had good cause to struggle that struggle, to kill different individuals, over proudly owning individuals—Black individuals,” Danielle Pompey stated. “He was making an attempt to say, ‘It’s not okay to personal individuals, however that they had property, companies.’” And apparently she wasn’t the one one for whom DeSantis’s POV stood out.
Per the Occasions:
Final 12 months, DeSantis signed into regulation the ridiculously named STOP Woke Act, which prohibits colleges and companies from educating lessons or coaching programs that would end in somebody feeling responsible about actions taken by individuals of the identical race. (Whereas the phrase “white individuals” by no means seems within the textual content of the regulation, it was fairly clearly written with their profit in thoughts.) In November, a federal decide blocked a central piece of the “Cease Woke” Act, calling it “positively dystopian” and saying violates the First Modification.
Final month, whereas decrying the African American research course, DeSantis introduced that his administration plans to defund variety, fairness, and inclusion applications at each public school within the state.
